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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Past Desires And The Dead, Steven Luper
Past Desires And The Dead, Steven Luper
Steven Luper
I examine an argument that appears to take us from Parfit’s [Reasons and Persons, Oxford: Clarendon Press (1984)] thesis that we have no reason to fulfil desires we no longer care about to the conclusion that the effect of posthumous events on our desires is a matter of indifference (the post-mortem thesis). I suspect that many of Parfit’s readers, including Vorobej [Philosophical Studies 90 (1998) 305], think that he is committed to (something like) this reasoning, and that Parfit must therefore give up the post-mortem thesis. However, as it turns out, the argument is subtly equivocal and does not commit …
The Absurdity Of Life, Steven Luper
Retroactive Harms And Wrongs, Steven Luper
Retroactive Harms And Wrongs, Steven Luper
Steven Luper
According to t he immunity thesis, nothing that happens after we a re dead harms or benefits us . It seems defensible on the following basis : 1. If harmed (benefitted) by something , we incur the harm (benefit) at some time. 2. So if harmed (benefitted) by a postmortem event, we incur the harm (benefit) while alive or at some other time . 3. But if we incur the harm (benefit) while alive , backwards causation occurs. 4. And if we incur the harm (benefit) at any other time, we incur it at a time when we do not …
The Anatomy Of Aggression, Steven Luper
Adaptation, Steven Luper
"Life's Meaning", Steven Luper
"Life's Meaning", Steven Luper
Steven Luper
Your life has meaning just if, and to the extent that, you achieve the aims that you devote it to freely and competently. You adopt your goals and achieve them more or less through your own efforts, so meaning is something you bestow upon your own life. These achievements are the meaning of your life. In this essay I develop this view, discuss how life’s meaning is related to its purpose and to an individual’s welfare and identity, and examine reasoning that suggests that life is absurd and show how it can be resisted.